This Saturday: Growing Food in Southern California!

Outstanding in his field.
Gardenmaster David King 

Yup, it's the first Saturday of the month, which means 10 to noon, David King offers his monthly 2 hour class, Growing Food In Southern California - that's the real title, but most of us call it What To Do And When To Do It because that is the crux of the class. 

We have several different approaches this Saturday, mainly revolving around doing things that don't require a lot of effort when the thermometer is up towards the top of the gauge. A general workshop on sowing seeds of different sizes and a list of what you can plant now and strategies to help them survive. 

All this and some free seeds (some real gems too!) and your questions answered! Still only $20 at the gate - enter at the little pedestrian gate on Walgrove that says "Enter." We are clever that way!  

See you there! 

david  

Grow Your Own Plants From Seed

Starting your own plants from seed is often treated as a mysterious and bedazzling craft that is up there in the same stratosphere as wizard work. It's not. It does require a little learning and more patience and attention, but other than that it's pretty simple and straight forward.

A seed wants to grow – it's not like you are trying to get your teenager to clean up their room – a seed really wants to grow and fulfill its mission in life. All you need to do is to provide the right conditions, and keep providing the right conditions, until the plant is definitely on its way. And, of course, at that point, you are keeping it alive in the garden. You see, it's not that much different.

Choosing your own seed allows you not only to choose varieties your local nursery isn't carrying, but allows you to choose multiple varieties that extend the length of your harvest or the breadthy of your harvest. It allows you to be organic from the very first drop of water the seed imbibes all the way to placing it before your family and friends at the dinner table.

All you need is some good seed catalogs and a little self-restraint (don't buy hundreds of dollars worth of seed at once – a little here, a little there would be much more realistic!); a potting medium (garden soil is NOT a potting medium for any plant and especially seedlings!); a place to make a mess and a bright area that gets enough sun (or light of some kind) to sprout seeds.

Long before you begin, go on some websites of seed purveyors and obtain a current catalog - get as many catalogs as you feel comfortable having and peruse them to your heart's content. What do you want to grow? What qualities do you admire in a tomato or a squash? Choose only a few the first time out. Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, beans, peas and other common vegetables are the best for learning. Order single packets!  Here's where I like Pinetree Garden Seeds in Maine; they have a good selection of seed, but each package is packed with fewer seeds and sells for less – for most home gardeners, this is a godsend! I want to grow several varieties of tomatoes and don't need but a few plants of each, Pinetree makes that more possible and don't require an expenditure similar to a down payment on a home.

In reading the catalogs, you are looking for traits that suit your needs – I like to grow paste tomatoes, early tomatoes, and a couple of cherry tomatoes. I look all through my catalogs and compare maturity dates and size and descriptions of productivity to find the best finalists from which I will whittle down to my nine 'gotta haves' for this year.

The easiest way to do this is to place your seedlings in a bright spot that won't be too cold and is protected from critters of all kinds. This can be a simple table under a shade tree near your back patio, on the back patio, or, if all else fails, in a spare room in the house with fluorescent lights and a timer. I have done them all - including starting some plants in a professional greenhouse. It's still the same formula with slightly different tweaks. 

For containers, I typically recycle six-packs, four inchers (sometimes called quarts) and one gallon nursery pots. I also have some small terra cotta pots I use, but the plastic ones are (sadly) a lot easier. I fill these up with potting soil – if I can't find a brand as smooth as I want, then I sift out the big pieces and make a finer mix that way. Fill the chosen pot almost all the way full with the potting mixture and press down firmly. You will want to end up with a container in which the potting soil is below the outside edge of the pot – when you water, you want standing water on the top that remains there until it sinks in; a fully topped off pot would allow the water to run off without wetting the soil.

This will lead you to the next step nicely and smoothly – there is little chance you will ever learn to save seed if you don't grow your own plants from seed. I think this is essential to really becoming a gardener. In fact, most gardeners, who think they are good, will sheepishly confess when they don't feel competent growing from seed; like they know they haven't quite lived up to their own standard of being a 'good gardener'. It takes some learning to grow from seed, but it's not impossible or difficult – any more so than any other part of gardening. And once you learn to do it, you will be proud of your skill level and the plethora of choice you now have.

In the near past, some plants were grown in diseased greenhouses and the entire tomato crop in the east was affected. Don't import insects and disease into your garden - start from seed and have a good harvest! 

david

Seed Saving Considerations

As I prepare to give a seed saving lecture this afternoon, here are some considerations many of us have not thought about in our seed saving quests. Following this one page, there are several other posts related to seed saving for reference to all. If you get the chance to attend a seed saving course at some time, take it! I was amazed at all a person can learn. This is an area of human endeavor that has been around for more time than we know and it has been a foundation for civilizations for centuries! This simple act of saving a seed, has been intregal to the lives of all who came before us, and let us not fool ourselves, our technology can cause us more harm than good when used in ways that fail to acknowledge what has come before. Seed saving is soul satisfying and fun.

In addition to saving seeds for your own use, for useful seed saving it was better to choose one or two crops that you would focus on entirely for seed saving and swapping. Doing this allows you to develop a seed over time that suits a particular soil and climate, and, accurately observe its characteristics and needs. For that seed or those seeds, keep detailed accounts of as much information about everything observed or known about them. :

• color
• odor
• size
• soil
• water
• sun
• cultivation and harvesting time
• variations in the seed
• where you planted it
• scientific name (as the colloquial name of it may vary)
• popular names
• uses
• origin (where it came from)
• date of seed preparation, etc.

As you prepare the seed for saving, you would then make detailed notes about these seeds.

Seeds without accurate information become nearly useless

Receiving seeds without knowing anything about them other than their variety renders the seed almost useless for planting. Although it may be fun, in terms of productivity it is akin to starting from zero.

Tips for saving seeds

• Select and keep the best plant for collecting seeds, don´t eat it.
• Clean the seed as dirt will encourage bacteria or fungus to grow and this will rot the seed.
• Keep them clean and dry.
• Paper bags are better than plastic bags.
• Put the paper bags then in clean, dry jars with lids.
• Maintain in a cool and dark place, if you can.
• Create a place for saving and organizing your seeds.

It is better to have a small quantity of seeds to save and exchange for which you have an abundance of information than to take on too much to manage information.

A Plant Isolation Distance Chart

Please note, these distances have been formulated for rural environments – no one has data applicable to urban growing, but the suspicion, and the experience of most SLOLA members, indicate that the distances will vary from these, and sometimes by quite a bit. In the final analysis, one needs to learn one's own growing situation and note air flow and insect activity. These charts also do not account for 'organic' methods which almost invariably means more insects interacting with the plants and create further variances from the figures below.

Plant	Isolation Distance (Ashworth)*	Isolation Distance (USDA)	Pollinator
Amaranth	¼ to 2 miles 1	—	wind, insects
Arugula	½ mile (2640')	660 feet 7	insects
Basil	150 feet	—	insects
Bean, Common	0 to 1 mile 4	0 5, 4	self 2
Bean, Fava	0 to 1 mile 4	0 5, 4	self 2
Bean, Lima	0 to 1 mile 4	0 5, 7, 4	self 2
Bean, Tepary	0 to 1 mile 4	0 5, 7, 4	self 2
Beet	5 miles	—	wind
Broccoli	1 mile	660 feet 7	insects
Broomcorn	—	660 feet 7	self 2
Brussels Sprouts	1 mile	660 feet 7	insects
Cabbage	1 mile	660 feet 7	insects
Cantaloupe	½ mile	¼ mile 7	insects
Carrot	½ mile	—	insects
Cauliflower	1 mile	660 feet 7	insects
Celery	1 mile	—	insects
Chinese Cabbage	1 mile	660 feet 7	insects
Chinese Mustard	1 mile	660 feet 7	insects
Chives	1 mile	¼ mile 7	insects
Collards	1 mile	660 feet 7	insects
Cilantro	½ mile	—	insects
Corn	2 miles	660 feet	wind
Cotton	—	¼ mile 6	self, insects
Cowpea	0 to 1 mile 2	0	self 2
Cucumber	½ mile	¼ mile 7	insects
Dill	1 mile	—	insects
Eggplant	50 feet	—	self 2
Fennel	½ mile	—	insects
Garlic	1 mile	¼ mile 7	insects
Garlic Chives	1 mile	¼ mile 7	insects
Gourds	½ mile	¼ mile 7	insects
Kale	½ mile	660 feet 7	insects
Lamb's Quarters	5 miles	—	wind
Lettuce	25 feet	—	self 2
Melon, Honeydew	½ mile	¼ mile 7	insects
Melon, Musk	½ mile	¼ mile 7	insects
Mustard	½ mile	660 feet	insects
Okra	1 mile	825 feet	self, insects
Onion	1 mile	¼ mile	insects
Parsley	1 mile	—	insects
Pea	50 feet	0 2	self 2
Pepper	500 feet	30 feet	self, insects
Potato	30 feet 3	30 feet 3	self, insects 3
Pumpkin	½ mile	¼ mile 7	insects
Radish	½ mile	660 feet 7	insects
Sorghum	—	660 feet	self 2
Spinach	5 miles	—	wind
Squash	½ mile	¼ mile 7	insects
Sunflower	½ to 3 miles	½ mile	insects
Swiss Chard	5 miles	—	wind
Tomatillo	0 4	30 feet 7	self 2
Tomato	0 4	30 feet	self 2
Turnip	1 mile	660 feet 7	insects
Watermelon	½ mile	¼ mile	insect

Footnotes:

1. Green amaranths may need only ¼ mile, grain amaranths up to 2 miles.
2. See paragraph on Self Pollination in Distance Isolation in the article on Saving Seeds True-to-Type.
3. Potatoes are not commonly reproduced from seed.
4. See note on tomatoes and beans in the article on Saving Seeds True-to-Type.
5. "Distance adequate to prevent mechanical mixture is necessary".
6. Isolation distances for cotton vary from 100' between similar varieties, to ¼ mile between 'upland' and 'Egyptian' types ('foundation' or 'preservation' grade).
7. Extrapolated from similar species.

A Short Seed Saving Bibliography

A Seed Saving Guide for Gardeners and Farmers, Organic Seed Alliance © 2010 OSA This publication is a free download from organicseedalliance.org. It is a succinct guide with few frills but a great deal of good data. A free publication that is worth paying for! Organic Seed Alliance is a non-profit relying on contributions to fight the invasion of hybrids and GMO seeds in our lives. I suggest throwing a donation their way as they deserve it.

Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's & Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding & Seed Saving , Deppe, Carol © 2000 Chelsea Green This is the most exhaustive and thorough book on the process of seed saving. Written with loving appreciation of seeds like no other book I've ever read, Carol Deppe is at once an authority on seeds and plant breeding and a knowledgeable gardener whose books I snatch up and devour as fast as possible. If you have interest in this field, buy this book now.

Enduring Seeds: Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation, Nabham, Gary Paul, © 2002 North Point Press, Though not strictly about saving seeds, this book, along with almost all of Nabham's books give one the reasons to save seeds. I respect and admire Nabham's work – he writes brilliantly and tells stories we need.

Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master's Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History,Weaver, William Woys © 2003, Owl Publishing Company, (My copy says 'Henry Holt.') Originally published in 1997, it is now out of print and getting a copy can be hellish. It is a wonderful book that needs to be put back in print because the research he put into the book makes this to be the most informative books on heirloom vegetables that has ever been published. Mother Earth News has the entire book on a CD – you can find it on their website – of course that doesn't duplicate having one's hands on the book, but you will have all the data.

The Organic Seed Grower: A Farmer's Guide to Vegetable Seed Production, Navazio, John ©2012, Chelsea Green Publishing This new book was written to fill the void in the marketplace that had no definitive text for professional growers growing seeds organically for the organic seed trade. This is an up and coming market as the world turns more and more to organic produce and growers have begun to realize that seed produced by growers using non-organic methods performs best under non-organic regimens. Suddenly, there is a market for organic seeds and varieties developed to grow in organic gardens. This book is rigorous and is not light reading. Be prepared. But is also chock full of data you will want to know sooner or later.

Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine, Nabhan, Gary Paul © 2008 Shearwater Not a seed saving book, but Nikolay Vavilov's research into the seeds of our foods is fascinating reading and helps ground a reader in the history of seed collecting and the reasons why we want to save seeds from the wilds.

A Seed Saving Glossary

Here are a few words that are used a lot in seed saving and their definitions. This is a good resource for a seed saver, whether just starting out or needing to refresh one's memory. 



This is not a comprehensive glossary, but should define most terms you will find in seed saving literature.
alternate-day caging - A technique that allows two different flowering varieties to be pollinated by insects without being cross-pollinated. Cages constructed of wood, wire, or plastic frames are covered with fine screen. One variety is covered with cages one day, allowing the other to be visited and pollinated by insects; the cages are switched each day to allow insect access to the previously caged variety.
anther - Organ where pollen is produced.
chaff - Broken pieces of dried seed capsules, stems, leaves and other debris mixed in with seeds.
characteristics - General features caused by unidentified complexes of genes including but not limited to freeze tolerance, cold tolerance, regional adaptability, winter hardiness, early maturation, and flavor.
cleaning screen - Screens with different-sized openings are used to separate seeds from chaff. The screen number denotes the number of openings that will cover a one inch line. A screen is selected with openings just large enough to let seeds drop through without the chaff or as in the case of larger seeds, a screen selected to allow the chaff to drop through without the seeds.
cross-pollination - When pollen is exchanged between different flowers from the same or different plants.
dehiscent - A seed capsule opened to discharge seeds is dehiscent. Seeds must be harvested before this process takes place and the seeds are lost. In some varieties, the seed capsules literally explode.
dioecious - A species with male flowers and female flowers on separate plants as opposed to monoecious.
dominant trait - The variation of a specific, identifiable gene that results in obserable traits. For example, tall is a dominant trait in pea plant growth. Crosses with bush varieties will usually result in tall varieties. See "trait."
F1 hybrid - The "F" in F1 hybrid stands for filial or offspring. F1 means the first generation offspring after cross-pollination. The majority of F1 hybrids are sterile or produce offspring unlike themselves. See "hybrid."
F2 hybrid – The second generation offspring and so on.
filament - Tube that supports the anther where pollen is produced.
flail - The process of fracturing or crushing seedpods in order to free the seeds. This can take the form of everything from simply rubbing broccoli pods between your hands to driving over bean vines with a car or bribing high school students to jump up and down on seeds.
flower - The part of a plant where reproduction takes place and seeds are produced.
hybrid - Varieties resulting from natural or artificial pollination between genetically distinct parents. Commercially, the parents used to produce hybrids are usually inbred for specific characteristics.
inbred – reproduction of plants using parents that are significantly similar over time. In some plants this is not a problem (tomatoes and lettuce, for example) as they have flowers with both male and female and are typically fertilized within the flower before it even opens (see 'selfing'); other plants, needing a wide variety of genetic information to remain healthy cannot last long with such a limited gene pool.
inbreeding depression - A loss of vigor because of inbreeding. Inbreeding is the result of self-pollination or pollination between two close relatives.
insect pollination - Pollen is carried from one flower to another by insects.
monoecious - A species is monoecious if it produces single plants with separate male flowers and female flowers on the same plant.
open-pollinated - Open-pollinated varieties are stable varieties resulting from the pollination between the same or genetically similar parents. Not hybrid.
ovary - The female part of a flower that contains the ovules. Fertilized ovules develop into mature seeds.
perfect flowers - Individual flowers that contain both stamens and pistils, that is to say, both male and female parts.
pistil - The female reproductive organ in a flower made up of the stigma, style, and ovary.
pollen - Equivalent of sperm in plants. Pollen grain fertilizes plant ovules.
pollination - The process of sexual fertilization in plants. The male chromosomes contained in pollen are combined with the female chromosomes contained in the ovules; pollination can be done by insects, wind, water, birds or bats. In most vegetable crops pollination is carried out by wind or insects.
recessive trait - The variation of a specific, identifiable gene that results in observable traits only if the dominant trait is not present. For example, wrinkled pea seeds result only in varieties where the dominant smooth-seed trait is missing.
rogue - The process of removing or destroying plants with unwanted characteristics or traits.
selection - The process of saving the seeds from plants that exhibit desirable characteristics and traits. To identify desirable characteristics, plant the same variety in different environmental conditions, or plant different varieties in the same environ mental conditions.
self-pollination (selfing) - When pollination takes place within a single flower, usually before it opens. Other flowers or plants are not needed. Self-pollinating flowers are called "perfect flowers" because they contain the stamens that produce pollen and the pistil that receives the pollen. Isolation distance to prevent cross-pollination is not necessary unless insects are known to invade the flowers before pollination is complete.
silique - Long, tube-like seedpod that splits in half.
stamen - A flower's male reproductive organ consisting of the filament, anther, and pollen.
stigma - The opening in the pistil through which the pollen passes to the ovary.
style - Contains the pollen tube between the stigma and the ovary through which the pollen is carried.
thresh - A term used by growers and seed savers to describe the process of separating seeds from chaff; they can be separating for grain to eat or for seeds to save, the term is ubiquitous.
trait - A specific feature traced to an identifiable gene or group of genes. Pea traits traceable to single genes include vine growth (bush or tall), seed texture (smooth or wrinkled) and disease resistance (fusarium, enation mosaic, and powdery mildew).
viable - A viable seed is one that will germinate and produce a vigorous plant. Seeds must not be harvested before they have matured enough to be viable. There is wide variation in the point of maturity at which a seed can be harvested and the time passing when the seed will still be viable. Seeds have been known to remain viable for hundreds of years, but in practice, many seeds are no longer viable even after five years.
vigor - Strong, vibrant germination and growth. A desirable characteristic.
wind pollination - When pollen is carried from one flower to another by the wind.

winnow – A seed cleaning technique still used from ancient times to clean seeds by moving air from a fan or breeze to separate heavier seeds from lighter chaff.

#7 in An Intermittent Series: Gardening Principles, Diversity

No matter how many fascists scream and holler about having state that is what they call “genetically pure,” any look at nature tells a prudent observer that diversity is the key to a healthy organization, be it a club, a nation state or your garden. The natural world runs on diversity which is one of the reasons that classification of species is oftentimes very contentious and bitter.

The alternate to diversity is a pathway to death and stagnation. We all know about problems caused by inbreeding – look at the long lineage of English kings if you need a nudge to see what can happen over generations – and it's true for all living beings, including plants in our gardens. Nature deals in diversification and we should follow that lead.

You may not have a big garden, but still, every attempt should be made to increase diversity. In our year round gardens, we have the climate to grow crops that do well in summer and a whole other palette for winter. This is good as it interrupts the some of the life in the soil that is after your vegetables. Usually you'll find that one species will work in hot weather and a different one in cooler weather, requiring different regimens to survive – and, of course you are planting different crops in the different seasons. So you'll disrupt food sources, or habitation choices, as you switch from season to season, the climate urging you to change as we warm and cool in our annual cycle.

If you plant tomatoes in one spot in Spring, and then use that same plot for lettuce and other greens in Fall, you have disrupted the disease and insects preying on tomatoes. You can plant tomatoes in the same spot next year. Now, I know you can plant tomatoes every year in the same spot. I'd rather you didn't. You might get along for two, three or more years with a good tomato crop, but sooner or later your luck will run out and then you're in a pickle! To get rid of the diseases your tomatoes have attracted, might prove daunting. Certainly, you'll have to leave that plot fallow and NOT grow any of the nightshades, like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and some others, because they will attract the same species that are ruining your tomatoes. I would probably put some alfalfa seeds down, and when they are about knee high, chop them down and dig them into the bed – in that soil plant winter crops like chard or kale – whatever you like in winter. That following summer, again do not plant tomatoes. Maybe plant a summer cover crop from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply (https://www.groworganic.com/cover-crop-seeds/soil-building/summer-soil-building.html ). Finally, in the third year of this ordeal, give yourself one tomato to try. If it exhibits the same affliction, do the whole thing over again hoping that a cure has been found in the interim.

But garden diversity is not confined by species – for yourself, plant multiple varieties! Have a hot pepper and a not so hot pepper; a red tomato and gold tomatoes; an early bean and a late bean! Mix up what you plant.

I'll plant some carrots with the intent to have them raw – others I'll plant specifically to pickle. For pickling I prefer the blunted ends of Nantes carrots, which will turn into pickled carrot sticks with less waste that you would find with the tapered Chantenay carrots.

Scarlet Runner Beans are a favorite for
the multiplicity of ways to eat them!
And their bright flowers.

While I like almost all beans, when I grow Pencil Pod, I'm growing them for pickles as well. The beans come quickly and, if well-picked, are quite straight, making canning them much more pleasant with less waste than, say, Royalty Purple Pod, which is planted as an early bean, being one of the few that will germinate in cold weather when others would just rot.

On the other hand, for a longer, more diverse crop of beans, Scarlet Runner beans outshine almost anything else you can plant. First off, you have these wonderful, very bright, red flowers that are worth a bouquet, but don't do that because in few weeks those flowers will become beans. They will be big! The pods about 1 ½” wide and 8 inches long and, though intimidating, they are tender and as delicious as any other snap bean you can get your hands on! After a time, the pods begin to shrink, outlining the beans. The bright purple beans can be cooked as a “shelly bean.” Finally as the bean dry, they can be stored like any other dried bean and cooked over night for a hearty soup or stew. And it didn't mention that they climb. Plant them with something to climb on and you will enjoy a good supply of green beans and be blessed by the flowers. Besides red, there is a red/white 'edition' and I have been gifted with a variety, completely unknown to me, of a brown seeded runner bean – I'll let you know what I learn in the coming year with these beans.

This kind of diversity is repeated through out nature. The more diversity in your garden, the more resilient it will be in all kinds of climates. The ascent of global climate upheaval will demand that we be as diverse and as resilient as possible in order to contend with the changes that cannot be anticipated - we must employ diverse food production to allow ourselves redundancy in our food supply.

Gardeners and farmers have, until now, been able to predict with some certainty, what the coming six months of weather will bring. This is no longer true. We will soon have common forecasts that will predict weather on that scale, but even then, there will be errors and we will have to survive until the next crop comes in. That will be our biggest challenge. The only way to overcome this is a diversity of crops and a diversity of humans in different locations growing those crops.

So shoot for diversity in your garden, no matter how small it may be, you still have room to plant a variety of species and I urge you to take advantage of that.

david